We had about five inches Jan. 10. Non-essential personnel at Fort Bragg were given admin. leave for Jan. 10 and 11 and four hours delayed reporting to work on the 12th. Secondary roads were icy and dangerous until the melt came the morning of the 12th. I stayed in for two days except to brush some of the snow and ice off my car the afternoon of the 11th. What's infuriating is that even though forecasters knew that we would be hit with a winter storm on the 10th, the Fort Bragg command didn't put out word about non-essential personnel being excused from work until 7:30 that morning. I was supposed to be at work at 0800 and I was warming up my car and beginning to brush off the snow when I decided to call the inclement weather number on post one more time only to learn that they had just put out the message. My supervisor who reports to work at 0730 had tried to go in but couldn't get out of her subdivision because of unplowed streets. Another worker heard on the radio on the way to work and turned around to head home and one got the word only when she reached the gate of the post. With a predicted storm like this one they could have made the announcement the night before and let people sleep in.

We talked to the shop owner (on his cell because he's in San Francisco), and he said to open the shop for the full day - 9am to 9pm. We abut a large Whole Foods and we get a lot of walk ins from there, so I asked their manager what his plans were. He said he was definitely going to close no later than 7, and maybe sooner if the traffic coming in was generating less than they were spending to keep the store open. So I decided to close up at 6:30 particularly since I was the only one there at that time because none of the hourlies came in. In all fairness, I called them and told them all to stay home. So, we did less than 20% of our normal business for Wednesday. Hardly worth getting out of bed for.

A tale from ancient history:
Back in about '73, I was living 21 miles from work and left one morning at the usual time of 6:30 after a night of snow; pulled up to the gate at 11:30 after a harrowing drive along back streets and freeway frontage roads (main roads were closed).

The guard says "What are you doing here, sir?"

"Trying to get to work," says I.

"The base is closed, sir. Didn't you get the word on the newscasts?"

"Nope" says I. "No radio in this thing" (my 1965 Sunbeam Alpine).

"Come on into the guard shack, sir. You can at least have a cup of coffee before heading back home."

So I did, and left for home about noon, arriving there just after 5:00 PM. Long day. Installed a radio in the car not long afterward.

Another one: living in Wiesbaden in early '75, had to visit Stuttgart one day, no problem getting there but snow arrived late morning. Decided to leave for Wiesbaden about 3:00 PM and the normal three-hour trip turned into 15. At least, there were four of us in that big old Ford staff car, and we all pitched in to help push other motorists out of snowdrifts along the way. Yahoo.

#1. Somewhere in early 1980s. Big storm coming up the East Coast from the south on the same day that we are supposed to drive from NYCity to College Park, Maryland. In our brand spanking new Toyota Tercel 4 Wheel Drive we figured how bad can a snowstorm down south be--after all, I lived in Maryland for 3 years at Andrews Air Force Base and at College Park, and I had not seen more than dustings.

Short story: it took us 17 hours to make a 4-hour drive, and most of that time was spent standing still just before the Baltimore Tunnel entrance, with no way to get off the road.

#2. March 1993 a major "Noreaster" comes through the Finger Lakes region. Feet of snow blanket the area over a 36-hour period. The next morning, I get in my Subaru All Wheel Drive to get the mail at our PO Box and to pick up some groceries. While driving the six miles to downtown, the roads are semi-cleared, with just a narrow opening to get through and ten-foot high piles that had been plowed on either side of me. Luckily, I seemed to be the only one out driving. When I got to town, no one was there--everything was closed.

It wasn't until I got back home and turned on the radio when I found out that anyone other than emergency vehicles caught driving on the roads that day would be fined.

Ok, here's mine.
On Thursday, February 10, 1983 a huge snowstorm swept up the eastern seaboard, burying the Mid-Atlantic in a swath of very heavy snow. Baltimore received 25 to 30 inches and I was with the Baltimore City Police, Northeastern District, single and between wives. Two weekends prior I had just met this really beautiful, fun girl. I was on day shift and owned a Nissan B310, front wheel drive car and was really nervous thinking I was to drive about 3 miles to an apartment that I was sharing with my best friend Dennis. I called the apartment and my room mate said that his girlfriend and my new squeeze, who were good friends, were both at the apartment and would be staying the entire weekend because they were too far from their homes to comfortably travel. Needless to say that B310 plowed thru 25+ inches of snow for a couple of days like butter! Snow? What snow? [img]/ubb/wink.gif[/img]